Answers about the Young Writers Workshop

APPLICATION, ADMISSION, ATTENDANCE

There is no set deadline for applying. Instead, we do rolling admissions, beginning
in January of each year. We continue to read applications and accept students until
the program is filled. Usually this occurs sometime in May.

Applying reasonably early is encouraged. We usually end up having to wait list qualified
students towards the end of the admissions process.

We will notify all applicants of our decision via e-mail. Please be sure to include
a valid and regularly used e-mail address as part of your application. To ensure that
you receive all communications from the Young Writers Workshop, you should also add
the Director's name and address to your email address book: Jamie Hutchinson: jamieh@simons-rock.edu

We strongly discourage students from doing this, for two reasons: 1) We believe that
young writers should be exposed to as many approaches to writing as possible. Repeat
attendance at the Young Writers Workshop is likely to be less valuable than participating
in one of the many other writing workshops that are available each summer. 2) Every
year we find ourselves having to place qualified students on our wait list because
we simply don’t have enough room in the program. It only seems fair, therefore, to
limit attendance at the workshop to one summer, thereby leaving room for other deserving
students to participate in it.

Modest financial aid is available. Financial aid applications may be downloaded from our web site. In addition to regular financial aid, a specially endowed scholarship, the Dorothy West Scholarship, is available to students of color. This scholarship is competitive. Applying for
financial aid does not have any effect on whether a student is considered for acceptance
to the workshop.

The National Writing and Thinking Network was established by the Institute for Writing
and Thinking at Bard College with generous support from The Bingham Trust to provide
imaginative, stimulating, and enjoyable summer writing programs for high school students.
The three-week Simon’s Rock workshop began in 1983 and was the first of the Network’s
summer workshops. Other workshops (two-weeks in length) are held at Lake Forest College and Lewis and Clark College. All of the Network's summer workshops are modeled on the innovative three-week Language
and Thinking Program that Bard College requires of entering students. Now in its 33rd
year, the Language and Thinking Program encourages students to think through writing,
try many genres, be sensitive to voice, and explore the world through fiction, poetry,
and memoir as well as through exploratory essays.

We are interested in enrolling students who possess solid writing skills and are interested
in experimenting with new directions in their writing. We also are looking for students
who are socially mature and capable of working independently as well as collaboratively.
Overall, the student who will benefit most from the workshop is one who likes to work
with other people and who isn’t looking for a traditional approach to writing and
learning. Being open to experimenting with new approaches, being willing to be playful
and take some risks as a writer and learner, being interested in the process of learning
more than final goals — these qualities characterize students in the Young Writers
Workshop. In a typical summer the workshop enrolls students from 20-25 states and
the District of Columbia. In addition, we often have a few students from abroad (e.g.,
in recent years, England, Israel, Senegal, Burma, China, South Korea, and Oman). The
diversity of people and writing interests facilitates a creative and intellectually
engaging atmosphere. It’s perhaps worth noting that far more girls than boys tend
to apply and enroll, the typical ratio being 3-1.

The Young Writers Workshop is a residential program. Local students must live on campus
for the entire program. Classes and other scheduled activities are only part of the
workshop; living with other writers is integral to the learning that goes on during
the three weeks. Local students, however, are welcome to go home occasionally for
visits or meals.

We ask students who enroll in the workshop to make sure that their summer schedule
allows them to participate in the full three weeks. What happens at the beginning
and end of the workshop is just as important as what happens in the middle.

Normally the deposit is non-refundable. But if a student is unable to attend due to
documented medical reasons or documented family difficulties (e.g., a death in the immediate
family, a natural catastrophe), and we are able to fill the position from the waiting list, then we are willing to refund
the deposit.

Generally speaking, the answer is no. However, a pro-rated portion of the student’s
remaining room and board costs will be refunded in the event of a student having to
leave the workshop for documented medical reasons or documented family difficulties (e.g., a death in the immediate family). These are the only circumstances under which
a partial refund will be granted.

ACADEMICS

The workshop faculty are Associates of the Bard College Institute for Writing & Thinking.
All of them are practicing writers and experienced teachers with advanced degrees
(i.e., MA, MFA, or PhD). In addition to their experience in the Simon’s Rock workshop,
they have taught in the Language and Thinking Workshop for new students at Bard, as
well as led Institute workshops for teachers. They are invited to teach at Simon’s
Rock because of their knowledge, teaching ability, and enthusiasm.

Although students are welcome, in their free time, to continue working on personal
projects, workshop leaders will not have time to read or respond to them. Our focus,
instead, will be on helping students explore techniques for generating new writing
and on modeling ways of developing these workshop drafts through work in small writing
groups. Regular conferences between students and workshop leaders will also focus
on writing produced in the course of the workshop.

Yes and no. Unlike “creative writing” programs that concentrate on the technical aspects
of writing poetry or fiction, the Simon’s Rock workshop offers students the opportunity
to work in a range of genres, including poems, personal narratives, short stories,
and essays, for the purpose of strengthening their writing and thinking skills. Writing
is seen as a complex activity that constructs meaning through language and fosters
an engaged imagination.

Rather than taking classes that focus on different topics, the 84 students in the
workshop are randomly divided up into individual workshop sections of 12 students
each. The groups are heterogeneous in terms of age and gender. Each section is led
by a workshop leader, and the students and faculty member then work together as a
group throughout the three weeks. By getting to know one another well, students and
teachers develop a sense of camaraderie that allows them to feel comfortable taking
risks with their writing and thinking as well as sharing it with others in the group.

Daily writing ranges from reflective journals to stories, poems, and personal or reflective
prose. The focus is on using informal, exploratory writing to generate drafts, define
topics and questions for discussion, and make connections between what students already
know and new ways of thinking. The workshop also focuses on ways of using writing
as a learning tool, whether one is exploring history, art, one’s personal experience,
or natural phenomena. Each week students present portfolios of writing to their workshop
leaders, who respond by individually discussing them with students and by providing
written suggestions and questions. The portfolios contain informal writing, works
in progress, and finished pieces in various genres. Students who have attended other
summer writing workshops typically tell us that at Simon’s Rock they’ve ended up producing
much more writing and a much greater variety of writing than in previous summers.

The workshop is ungraded. Students’ work is not evaluated in any formal sense. Instead,
both students and workshop leaders practice responding to one another’s writing in
ways that help the writer to extend his or her thinking and engage in revision. We
also ask students to do a good deal of self-reflective writing about their works in
progress, believing that this helps them to develop more autonomy and self-awareness
as writers. At the end of the workshop, parents do not receive a summary evaluation
of their student’s performance. Instead, workshop students write a long, self-reflective
letter to their workshop leader (which they are welcome to share with their parents
as well). Again, the emphasis is on the individual student taking charge of his or
her own writing and learning. Parents, of course, are welcome to speak directly to
a workshop leader if they have particular concerns or questions.

The Young Writers Workshop does not offer college credit for any of its classes. If
students wish to receive high school credit for their participation, they must arrange
this independently with their school officials.

Each weekday the workshop begins at 9:00 and ends at 3:00. There are three 90-minute
sessions, punctuated by a mid-morning break and lunch. The focus of each session varies,
but a typical day includes numerous informal writing activities, work in small writing
groups, and the exploration and discussion of various readings. The atmosphere is
informal. Workshop leaders write with their students and also share their work in
progress. Students normally have some writing and reading to do each evening and over
the weekend. There are no workshop meetings on weekends, with the exception of the
final Saturday morning.

Although the major “text” for each workshop is students’ own writing, students are
encouraged to be active readers, responding via writing and discussion to texts from
many disciplines. By reading poetry, personal narratives, short stories, and essays,
students encounter different forms that they then may emulate in their writing. This
exposure also prepares them for the quantity and difficulty of reading they will face
in college.

Like the other workshops in the National Writing and Thinking Network, the Simon’s
Rock workshop is modeled on the Language and Thinking Program required of all students
entering Bard College. As such, the workshop is designed to prepare students for the
kind of writing and reading they will be asked to do in college. The workshop helps
develop students' fluency and confidence as writers, expand their experience of writing
in many genres, and develop enthusiasm for writing and reading. These skills are important
no matter which college a student decides to attend.

Social and Residential Life

In the workshop itself, the frequent sharing of writing in progress, the work in small
groups, and the emphasis on collaborative learning help to build the sense of belonging
to a supportive writing community. Students initially get to know each other as writers,
readers, and thinkers. Ample opportunities for getting to know one another are also
available outside of class, whether it’s a staff-organized dance, a supervised off-campus
excursion, participating in a dormitory hall meeting, or just hanging out with other
students in a dormitory lounge watching a film. Unlike some summer programs, we assume
students will make their own choices when it comes to which extra-curricular activities
to participate in and how much social interaction they need. We do not, in other words,
devote time to mandatory “get-acquainted” activities outside of class.

The academic program is enhanced by the rich natural and cultural environment of the
Simon's Rock campus, located on 200 acres in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts
near the sites of such theater programs as Shakespeare and Company, Barrington Stage
Company, the Berkshire Theatre Festival, and Berkshire Fringe. Students have the opportunity
to attend performances by these groups during their stay at Simon's Rock, as well
as to spend a day observing and writing at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary
Art (MASS MoCA). Students also have ample time to enjoy the scenic beauty of the campus
and its surroundings as well as to enjoy the college's many recreational and social
opportunities. These include hiking, running, biking, softball, tennis, swimming,
volleyball, weight training, basketball, squash, and racquetball. Weekly on-campus
activities typically include films, readings, lectures, concerts, crafts, treasure
hunts, and dances. Off-campus excursions (e.g., a trip to a play) are chaperoned by
Residence Directors and/or student counselors.

We have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to drugs and alcohol. A student who
violates this rule, or who is knowingly present when others violate it, will be immediately
sent home. We also ask all students and their families to read and agree to (sign)
a set of Community Guidelines, thereby indicating that both parties have reviewed
them and that the student promises to abide by them while at Simon’s Rock. These Guidelines
set forth what constitutes appropriate and acceptable behavior at the workshop. Students
who violate the Guidelines as outlined in the agreement may be expelled from the program
and sent home at their parents' expense.

Students live in two of the college’s dormitories, along with adult Residence Directors
(experienced members of our regular college student life staff) and student counselors
(a mix of former summer program and Simon’s Rock college students). The girls live
in one dorm, the boys in an adjacent one. Most students will live in doubles, though
in the past a few girls have been assigned singles (most often at their request).
Students fill out a questionnaire to help the staff in choosing compatible roommates.
Both dormitories include a lounge, laundry and kitchen facilities, and vending machines.

The dormitories are well lit and well staffed. Each student room can be locked from
the inside. Following curfew each night, the staff makes sure all students are accounted
for. Students are required to be in their dormitory by 11:00 p.m., at which time the
dormitory doors are locked. The college’s Security staff is on duty each day and patrols
the campus throughout the night. The college campus is fairly small, making it easy
to keep track of people. In addition, Gt. Barrington and the surrounding area are
viewed by both residents and visitors as a safe environment.

Students and their families must complete and submit an extensive medical form (signed
by a doctor) prior to enrolling in the workshop. We also expect each student to have
medical insurance. Although our Wellness Center office is closed for the summer, one
of the college’s nurses is available a few afternoons a week to consult with students
who may have questions or need minor care. In the event of a more serious medical
issue, students are taken to the emergency room of the local hospital (5 minutes from
campus). All health care costs are the responsibility of parents or students. All
health information provided to the college is kept confidential.

Parents are welcome to visit any time that a student is not in class. If you go off
campus with your parents, we ask that you notify your Residence Director and the Security
Office when you are leaving and when you expect to return. Friends may also visit,
but only if accompanied by your parents or by adults known to you and your parents
(in the latter case we require a communication from your parents regarding the visit).
In general, we encourage you to focus on making new friends during the workshop rather
than spending time with existing friends.

If you choose to drive to the college, you will have to give your keys to the Director
of Student life upon arrival. You may not drive your car for the duration of the program
(moving it to a new parking space once or twice for maintenance purposes is allowed).
Getting into a motor vehicle with anyone other than workshop staff or instructors
can be grounds for expulsion.

Our home campus, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, is the only four-year residential college
specifically designed for students ready for college after the 10th or 11th grade.
Learn more.